Jordan Ashman, an 18-year-old percussionist from Milton, Cambridgeshire, has emerged because the winner of BBC Younger Musician 2022.
The announcement was made throughout the broadcast of the Competitors’s Grand Last on BBC 4 and BBC Radio 3, on Sunday 9 October at 7pm. The Grand Last was introduced by trailblazing saxophonist and broadcaster Jess Gillam (herself a Younger Musician finalist, in 2016), plus classical soul pianist, composer and producer Alexis Ffrench, and BBC Younger Musician common Josie d’Arby.
The second consecutive percussionist to win the award (after Fang Zhang in 2020), Jordan began taking part in drums on the age of seven, earlier than branching out into percussion. Presently finding out on the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, he has performed with the Nationwide Youngsters’s Orchestra, Nationwide Youth Orchestra and the Nationwide Youth Brass Band.
Jordan scooped the award with a efficiency of the Percussion Concerto by American composer Jennifer Higdon. The BBC Philharmonic offered the accompaniment, with Mark Wigglesworth as conductor.
The judging panel was chaired by organist and broadcaster Anna Lapwood, and included BBC Radio 3’s Editor for Reside Music Emma Bloxham, Southbank Centre’s Head of Classical Music Toks Dada, conductor Ben Gernon, and sitar participant, composer and producer Anoushka Shankar.
Jordan Ashman stated: ‘Collaborating in BBC Younger Musician 2022 was an unimaginable expertise. Engaged on the Jennifer Higdon Percussion Concerto with Mark Wigglesworth within the Grand Last, and performing alongside such superb musicians together with the opposite rivals and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, was one thing that I’ll always remember.
‘I used to be, and nonetheless am, actually excited to showcase what I and all of the totally different percussion devices can do, and I hope that I’ve tremendously elevated individuals’s understanding of percussion and that they will see how vibrant, virtuosic, expressive and dynamic the percussion could be,’ Jordan added.
‘Jordan’s efficiency began not with loud, flashy taking part in, however with beautiful, light magnificence,’ Anna Lapwood famous. ‘He held the complete room all through that delicate opening and stored that magic by means of his entire efficiency. Jordan mixed emotional expression with a straightforward, assured approach, and moments of brilliance that made all of us catch our breath.
‘All through the competitors, all 5 finalists demonstrated a bravery and dedication to excellence that was extremely shifting, exhibiting us that custom and innovation don’t should be mutually unique however can go hand in hand. Bravo to all of them, and to all the opposite terribly proficient younger musicians who’ve been part of this course of.’
Filmed on Thursday 29 September at Manchester’s Bridgewater Corridor, the Grand Last additionally featured distinctive performances by the opposite 4 2022 BBC Younger Musician Class Winners. These have been:
- Brass: trumpeter Sasha Canter (19), a Royal Academy of Music pupil from Oxfordshire
- Keyboard: pianist Ethan Loch (18), presently finding out on the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
- Woodwind: flautist Sofía Patterson-Gutiérrez (17) from Stockport, in her last yr at Chetham’s College of Music
- Strings: viola participant Jaren Ziegler (17), a Junior Royal Academy of Music pupil and A-Degree pupil at College School College
Earlier BBC Younger Musician winners embrace celebrated classical music stars comparable to cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, violinist Nicola Benedetti, and clarinettist Mark Simpson.
Along with the protection on BBC 4 and BBC Radio 3, the BBC Younger Musician 2022 Grand Last is now obtainable on iPlayer for 12 months, and BBC Sounds for 30 days.
